Nfl Turns Down Davis` Draft Plea

October 12, 1985|By Gary Reinmuth.

The National Football League Friday turned down former Texas Christian University running back Kenneth Davis` appeal for permission to turn pro immediately and filed suit in Texas State Court asking that its so-called

``Red Grange Rule`` be upheld.

Under the rule, players who have begun their college season are prohibited from playing in the NFL the same season. Davis played the first game on TCU`s 1985 schedule before he and six other players were suspended from the team for accepting improper payments from boosters.

Davis and his agent, Mike Trope, met with NFL commissioner Pete Rozelle Tuesday, seeking a supplemental draft that would allow him to play in the NFL this season.

The NFL said that permitting Davis to turn pro immediately could result in players ``with or without encouragement from agents`` leaving school prematurely to seek pro careers.

Tuesday, Trope had said he was prepared to go to court to force the NFL to accept Davis.

Grange was a University of Illinois halfback who, in 1925, signed with the Bears and played for them on Thanksgiving Day, immediately after the end of his college career. Browne said no player since then has played in college and in the NFL in the same year.

Meanwhile, the New York Times quoted Trope quoted as saying that Nebraska and Oklahoma boosters offered Davis money and other inducements before Texas Christian finally landed him. Trope said Davis told him that in 1980 Oklahoma supporters promised him an $18-an-hour job ``lifting weights`` and a new sports car. Nebraska backers, he said, tried to lure Davis with a lavish life which included free use of a five-car fleet.

Trope said Davis told him TCU won out when TCU alumnus Dick Lowe promised him more--and put it in writing. Trope quoted Davis as saying the written proposal offered by Lowe, then a member of TCU`s Board of Trustees, promised him $38,000 in cash, clothes, firearms and other goods.

Oklahoma coach Barry Switzer said neither he nor his staff knew anything about the allegations. Nebraska coach Tom Osborne said his school offered Davis nothing more than a scholarship.

-- Iowa coach Hayden Fry Thursday threatened to remove his team from Wisconsin`s Camp Randall Stadium field Saturday if ``rotten eggs and other things are thrown at us.`` Earlier this week, Fry called Camp Randall the

``worst place in the world`` for a visiting team to play. Eggs were thrown at Iowa`s coaches and players, and beer and peppermint schnapps were poured on them two years ago when the Hawkeyes defeated Wisconsin at Madison, Fry said. -- The King County Council voted 5-3 Friday to approve a new lease agreement with the Seattle Mariners for the Kingdome. Councilman Bob Grieve, who voted against the new agreement, called it ``a joke.`` He said the Mariners plan to leave ``and we`re making it easier.`` He was referring to an escape clause in the agreement. Mariners` president Charles Armstrong said he was pleased by the vote, adding ``It`s time to put everything behind us.`` The county council`s action followed the Seattle City Council`s approval of a $220,000-a-year aid plan for the Mariners on the lease for the domed sports arena. Indiana great dead at 52

Don Schlundt, the leading scorer in Indiana University basketball history and a member of the Hoosiers` 1953 national championship team, died Thursday night in Indianapolis. He was 52. Schlundt anchored the Indiana team that beat Kansas 69-68 in the 1953 NCAA championship game. A 6-foot-9-inch center, he scored 30 points as the Hoosiers, coached by Branch McCracken, won their second national title. Schlundt ended his career with 2,192 points. He was an all-Big 10 selection in 1953, 1954 and 1955 and was conference Most Valuable Player in 1953. He was named to the second team of The Associated Press All-America squads in 1953 and 1955.

-- National Basketball Association lawyers want to interview witnesses in the Tulane University point-shaving case before approving John ``Hot Rod``

Williams` contract with the Cleveland Cavaliers, but the judge says he won`t let them. Williams` lawyer, Joel Loeffelholz, asked Criminal District Judge Alvin V. Oser to change his gag order to let NBA lawyers interview witnesses and look at all the evidence. Prosecutors objected to the motion, and Oser rejected it Thursday. At the time he was drafted, Williams was still facing sports bribery charges in connection with three 1985 Tulane basketball games. University of Southern Indiana basketball coach and athletic director Mark Coomes resigned Thursday to return to the University of Illinois as an assistant basketball coach.